Moreover, that overexpression of TSSC3 enhanced autophagy and knockdown of ATG5 blocked TSSC3-induced autophagy were further confirmed in vivo using TEM (Fig. 4c) and IHC staining of TSSC3 and autophagy related proteins of human xenograft tumor tissues (Fig. 4d and Additional file 3: Figure S4c). The gene discussed is ATG5; the disease is neoplasm.